Our difficulties Are But GOD'S Challenges,

How did GOD bring about the miracle of the Red Sea? By shutting His people in on every side, so that there was no way out but the divine way.

The Egyptians were behind them, the sea was in front of them, the mountains were on every side of them. There was no escape but from above.

Some one has said that the devil can wall us in, but he cannot roof us over. We can always get out at the top.

Our difficulties are but GOD'S challenges, and He makes them so hard, often, that we must go under or get above them.

In such an hour, if there is a divine element, it brings out the highest possibilities of faith and we are pushed by the very emergency into GOD''S best.

Beloved, this is GOD'S hour. If you will rise to meet it you will get such a hold upon Him that you will never be in extremities again, or if you are, you will learn to call them not extremities, but opportunities...

And like Jacob, you will go forth from that night at Peniel, no longer Jacob, but victorious Israel.

Let us bring to Him our need and prove Him true.

~A. B. Simpson~

The Consequence Of Living On The Ground Of Nature

What is the ground of nature? Well, look at Israel and you can see quite clearly what the ground of nature is.

The ground of nature is always a drawing of things toward oneself and a viewing of everything in the light of oneself, just how it affects self.

You see right at the beginning it was that. Yes, of course, the deliverance at the beginning affected us rather well, and so we were very happy.

The mighty deliverance at the Red Sea is a good thing for us, so we are full of joy today.

It will always be like that while things are good for us.

But let us find that we are being tested at all, bring us tomorrow to this place and that, where it is not so obvious that it is all to our profit, and the song ceases, joy goes out, and murmuring comes in "They murmured."

Oh how often it is said that they murmured! 

Why? Because they occupied carnal ground, natural ground, which in a word, means "how it affects me"!

That is natural ground, and on that ground there will always be the uprising of unbelief.

The strength of unbelief is just that very thing, personal natural interests and considerations, looking at things in the light of our own advantage or disadvantage.

Allow that kind of thing to come in for a moment, and it will not be long before you are questioning and doubting, and found in unbelief; for the essence of faith is the very opposite of that.

When things are going against you and your interests, and you are losing your life and all that you have, and you believe GOD, you trust GOD, that is faith indeed, that is the essence of faith.

But faith is not real faith when we believe GOD merely while the sun shines and all goes well. 

Israel occupied natural ground so persistently that they were found more in unbelief than in faith.

It was that which blinded them. So that blind unbelief, when we come to analyze it, is simply occupying ground that is other than resurrection ground;

That is, we are occupying ground which GOD has put under the curse, which GOD has forbidden, upon which GOD has inscribed the warning to believers, Keep off!

If only we could see in our hearts those warning notices of GOD strewn over the whole territory of self-interest, worldly considerations, and so on, we should be saved from very much of the misery which comes into our lives.

Well, you see, the whole life of nature is a blind thing, and the measure in which we are ruled by nature is the measure of our blindness.

The natural man, says the Spirit of GOD, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of GOD... he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned or "discerned by the spiritual" (1 Cor. 2:14).

The whole life of nature is a blind thing.

The measure in which we occupy that ground is the measure of our blindness.

GOD was seeking to get Israel off that ground on to resurrection ground, to be governed, not by nature, but by the Spirit:

And being governed by the Spirit means to walk in the light, means to have light, means to see.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Christian Liberality

To think about the poor and let them lie on our hearts is a Christian man's duty; for Jesus put them with us and near us when He said, "The poor ye have always with you."

Many give their money to the poor in a hurry, without thought; and many more give nothing at all. 

This precious promise belongs to those who "consider" the poor, look into their case, devise plans for their benefit, and considerately carry them out.

To those who consider the poor, the LORD promises His own consideration in times of distress.

He will bring us out of trouble if we help others when they are in trouble.

We shall receive very singular providential help if the LORD sees that we try to provide for others. 

We shall have a time of trouble, however generous we may be; but if we are charitable, we may put in a claim for peculiar deliverance, and the LORD will not deny His own word and bond.

Miserly curmudgeons may help themselves, but considerate and generous believers the LORD will help.

As you have done unto others, so will the LORD do unto you. Empty your pockets.

~Charles Spurgeon~

The Overcomer

Rev 2:7  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.  

No man may turn his back in the day of battle or refuse to go to the holy war.

We must fight if we would reign, and we must carry on the warfare till we overcome every enemy, or else this promise is not for us, since it is only for "him that overcometh."

We are to overcome the false prophets who have come into the world and all the evils which accompany their teaching.

We are to overcome our own faintness of heart and tendency to decline from our first love. Read the whole of the Spirit's word to the church at Ephesus.

If by grace we win the day, as we shall if we truly follow our conquering Leader, then we shall be admitted to the very center of the paradise of GOD and shall be permitted to pass by the cherub and his flaming sword and come to that guarded tree, whereof if a man eat, he shall live forever.

We shall thus escape that endless death which is the doom of sin and gain that everlasting life which is the seal of innocence, the outgrowth of immortal principles of Godlike holiness.

Come, my heart, pluck up courage!

To flee the conflict will be to lose the joys of the new and better Eden; to fight unto victory is to walk with GOD in paradise.

~Charles Spurgeon~

GOD Has Chosen Me

Isa 48:10  Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.

Does not the Word come like a soft shower, assuaging the fury of the flame? Yes, is it not an asbestos armor, against which the heat has no power?

Let the affliction come--GOD has chosen me. Poverty, thou mayest stride in at my door; but GOD is in the house already, and He has chosen me. Sickness, thou mayest intrude; but I have a balsam ready--GOD has chosen me. Whatever befall me in this vale of tears, I know that He has chosen me.

Fear not, Christian; Jesus is with thee. In all thy fiery trials, His presence is both thy comfort and safety. He will never leave one whom He has chosen for His own. "Fear not, for I am with thee," is His sure word of promise to His chosen ones in "the furnace of affliction.".

 ~C. H. Spurgeon~

Pain's furnace heat within me quivers, GOD'S breath upon the flame doth blow; And all my heart in anguish shivers And trembles at the fiery glow; And yet I whisper, "As GOD will!" And in the hottest fire hold still.

He comes and lays my heart, all heated, On the hard anvil, minded so Into His own fair shape to beat it With His great hammer, blow on blow; And yet I whisper, "As GOD will!" And at His heaviest blows hold still.

He takes my softened heart and beats it; The sparks fly off at every blow; He turns it o'er and o'er and heats it, And lets it cool, and makes it glow; And yet I whisper, "As GOD will!" And in His mighty hand hold still.

Why should I murmur? for the sorrow Thus only longer-lived would be; The end may come, and will tomorrow, When GOD has done His work in me; So I say trusting, "As GOD will!" And, trusting to the end, hold still. 

~Julius Sturm~

The burden of suffering seems a tombstone hung about our necks, while in reality it is only the weight which is necessary to keep down the diver while he is hunting for pearls.

~Richter~

Purity Of Heart And Life

 

Mat 5:8  Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

Purity, even purity of heart, is the main thing to be aimed at. 

We need to be made clean within through the Spirit and the Word, and then we shall be clean without by consecration and obedience. 

There is a close connection between the affections and the understanding:

If we love evil we cannot understand that which is good.

If the heart is foul, the eye will be dim.

How can those men see a holy GOD who love unholy things?

What a privilege it is to see GOD here! A glimpse of Him is heaven below!

In Christ Jesus the pure in heart behold the Father.

We see Him, His truth, His love, His purpose, His sovereignty, His covenant character, yea, we see Himself in Christ.

But this is only apprehended as sin is kept out of the heart. 

Only those who aim at godliness can cry, "Mine eyes are ever towards the LORD."

The desire of Moses, "I beseech thee, show me thy glory," can only be fulfilled in us as we purify ourselves from all iniquity. 

We shall "see him as he is," and "every one that hath this hope in him purifieth himself." (I John 3:2-3)

The enjoyment of present fellowship and the hope of the beatific vision are urgent motives for purity of heart and life. 

LORD, make us pure in heart that we may see Thee!

~Charles Spurgeon~ 

What Singleness Of Eye Is

What is singleness of eye? How does it work? What does it mean?

If we were using another phrase, we would say it is a circumcised heart, for it is just here that the whole question of the intrusion of a second consideration is found.

You cannot have singleness if there are two. Singleness obviously means just one, not the intrusion of a second thing...

Which second thing is in the main, if not entirely, the intrusion of self-interest.

Numerous and deep-rooted are its forms; deeper than our consciousness, deeper than our intention...

Deeper than our will that something should be, deeper than we can reach...

This self-life is seated and rooted and its intrusion, consciously or unconsciously, destroys or prevents singleness of eye.

Singleness of eye is the utter exclusion of all self-consideration and self-interest in any way whatever...

A complete, unreserved concern and abandonment to the glory of GOD.

It raises very many practical questions.

Can we rejoice in the work of GOD without being the instrument, without feeling at all bad that we are not the instrument and just rejoice in the work without any place being given to us in it?

Or in seeing the work of GOD being done and going on, do we at once get into it with self-pity or with our own ambition and desire to have some place in that, which is not a pure, utterly selfless desire, completely circumcised in heart?

Can we rejoice and be thankful when the gospel is preached even of contention?

You remember Paul...Php 1:15  Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will:  

Php 1:16  The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds:

Php 1:17  But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. 

Oh, their motive! Unholy motive, the evil of that heart that is not singleness of eye, that is not purity of heart.

But what was Paul's reaction, "There is something wrong here; people like that ought not to be allowed to preach the gospel.

The LORD ought not to use that"? Paul said, "No, whether it be even of contention, whether it is with that evil motive, I rejoice that the gospel is preached anyway!"

That is singleness of eye.

Can we be even used of the LORD in any way, many ways, not only in public ministry or spoken ministry, but in other ways - in practical service, in giving - and then disappear?

Go right away at once behind the curtain?

It is the LORD'S interest, not ours - hands off; glad to be used, but out of sight at once, not peeping round to get the appreciation or thanks for what we have done, or to have some place in things because we have helped them.

All such matters go to the heart of this whole question of singleness of eye.

Can we let go, and stand right back?

You must not misunderstand what I am saying because there is another way of interpreting it - being careless, indifferent, "Let them get on with it!"

That is only another form to the contrary of purity of heart.

But I mean being out of it ourselves, letting go.

~T. Austin Sparks~

The Bible's First Promise

Gen 3:15  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

This is the first promise to fallen man. It contains the whole gospel and the essence of the covenant of grace. 

It has been in great measure fulfilled. The seed of the woman, even our LORD Jesus, was bruised in His heel, and a terrible bruising it was.

How terrible will be the final bruising of the serpent's head! 

This was virtually done when Jesus took away sin, vanquished death, and broke the power of Satan; but it awaits a still fuller accomplishment at our LORD's second advent and in the Day of Judgment.

To us the promise stands as a prophecy that we shall be afflicted by the powers of evil in our lower nature, and thus bruised in our heel; but we shall triumph in Christ, who sets His foot on the old serpent's head.

Through-out this year we may have to learn the first part of this promise by experience, through the temptations of the devil and the unkindness of the ungodly, who are his seed.

They may so bruise us that we may limp with our sore heel; but let us grasp the second part of the text, and we shall not be dismayed.

By faith let us rejoice that we shall still reign in Christ Jesus, the woman's seed.

~Charles Spurgeon~